If you want a more recent update, you can ring the shop on (970) 382 9978. A guide will generally be able to offer a comment.

July

The San Juan River is running at 635 cubic ft/sec and is fishing pretty well at the moment. The fish are seeing a lot of pressure so light and delicate rigging will increase the action. Bugs are still ranging from 20-28 mostly midge larva in black, red and gray. Also emergers such as Juju Beatis, RS2's and biot midges. Try to stick to basic colors with your indicators like white and black. Big brightly colored indicators are turning fish away. Stop by the shop for any supplies or gear for the river and see you out there!!

(Mark) Couple of nice rainbows brought to hand on the San Juan River by Gary who was Nymphing with a 11 foot 5 weight switch rod. Visibility is very clear and fish are spooky so the extra bit of reach helped. Be cautious of your approach. The water is gin clear and running at 500CFS. See you on the water!

June

Fished in the braids above Texas hole with two clients Michael and his son Andrew. The fishing was great, we started with a double fly rig under an indicator, A #16 Blood worm and a #24 black beauty. It Worked! The catching continued throughout the day. Flows are 350 cfs out of Navajo Dam and holding. The Inflow to the lake total from tributaries is still 2385 cfs which is way up from the average, the lake is 85.64% percent of a full pool.) Great Day on the Water.

Congratulation to first time fly fisher Joyce and her husband George on a 40th Wedding Anniversary fly fishing trip for bringing this nice Brownie to hand on the San Juan River. Fish were a little timid under the high sun but some hard work paid off and some quality fish were landed. Fish fell for small midge larvae imitations such as #22 black beauty's, #24 ju ju midges, and #22 big macs.

April - (Brad) The river fished incredibly well over the weekend. Despite the wind at times, fish were eating beatis emergers, red larvas, and bling midges. The medallion midge pupa was the fly of choice. We caught and landed good numbers and a few pushing 20 inches or better. Conditions are prime with the water still a little murky but very active fish!! Cheers

February - (Brad Miller) The Juan was fishing pretty well with good numbers and a few large fish. Water clarity is still murky with visibility about 2 ft. Consistent action on a orange desert storm #20, sparkle wing RS2's in gray and chocolate #20-24 and leeches/eggs on the dead drift. Have been seeing a few more fish coming to the surface eating adult midges and baetis.
Get out and enjoy the great conditions and experience the quiet water before the summer season. It's just around the corner!!

January - (Ben Hahn) Fished the San Juan with some good friends of mine. The water was a little murky because of the lake turning over. There were tons of fish eating just below the surface though. Most of the fish we saw from 10 am to 3 pm were eating just below the surface on midges and emergers. To fish them, we put on a really shallow rig with 6X fluorocarbon tippet. Two KF emerger patterns in black and chocolate seemed to do the trick. We also threw some streamers in the wooly bugger variety to get some really exciting takes. Again our favorite color was black.

Make sure to get down to the Juan and have exciting fishing from technical hatch fishing to throwing the meat! The shop in Durango has all of the flies I was using and I actually picked them up before the trip. Ask Cole to show you the "hot flies" for the Juan and you will be all set.

December - (Cole) The San Juan continues to fish very well with flows around 350 cfs. The weather has cooled down but so have the crowds. There are great opportunities to pursue rising fish on midge clusters, baetis patterns and blue wing olive (BWO) colored Mayfly's. This is a great time of year to explore and seek out areas that see less pressured fish. Stop by the shop and grab some recommended patterns for a great day.

December - (Nick) The morning midge hatches on the San Juan are still in full force! There are bugs crawling all over the water. For dry flies grey "I can see it" midges, para clusters and cdc midge adults are taking lots of fish! For nymphs work an orange egg with a WD in grey or black behind it.

November - (Nick) The San Juan is excellent with great midge fishing. We fished the upper section below the dam and there were midge clusters the size of ping pong balls floating around and getting munched by big fish! Look in the skinny water close to the banks and make a good cast with a long leader and you will get results. Any midge cluster is working from size 18-22 Griffith gnats, dead chickens, and para clusters.Its a great time to be out!

October - (Nick) The wade fishing by the dam right now is excellent! There are lots of fish starting to chase each other around and the midge clusters are prolific! Lots of big fish were hooked and the most productive bug was a size 24 sparkle wd in black. For dry flies a size 20 Griffith gnat will do the trick in seam lines and in the eddies there were midge clusters. Some of them are large clusters but I didn't get any fish responding until I fished the size 20.

September - (Nick)- The San Juan continues to be excellentl! We had project healing waters in for two days and got these crafty vets into some awesome fish! Chocolate foam wings, leeches, uv midges and red annelids all laid the beat down on fish the past few days!

(Nick) - The Juan is fishing extremely well at the moment! The morning midge fishing might be the best midging I have ever seen. The best rig to match the hatch is a size 24 purple haze with a 24 chocolate foam back trailing it. After the singles are done hatching the shallow water cluster fishing is great till about 11:30. During mid day the bugs have been shutting off until the afternoon when the clusters start rolling around again! During the bugless time, step outside the box and rip some streamers and mice around.

August - (Nick)- The San Juan has been excellent for a few days!! The best fly has been a chocolate jujubee midge. I have been dropping it in the surface film under a small purple haze about 10 inches off the dry.

July - (Nick) The fishing on the juan has been awesome over the last two days. Mostly nymphing is working right now, but there are some dry fly opportunities if you pick your pods wisely!! The best dries have been #24 purple haze with a Griffith gnat behind it! As far as nymphs go natural colored leeches, black beauties, and miracle midges are working.

June - (Nick) Fishing on the juan has been pretty good lately. There is a lack of bugs flying around but don't let that keep you away! That means it is a perfect time to throw hoppers, ants and leeches. Ginger leeches were the ticket with any little light colored midge below it. The hopper fishing recently has been awesome with CUF hoppers in pink and tan.

May - (Nick) The San Juan is rocking right now! It is a total midge factory. The fish were feeding heavily on red anelids, purple wooly buggers, and miracle nymphs. They were actively feeding mid column and eating like champs!

May - (Nick) - The Juan fished well today. For the best results expect to use small flies down to super tiny!!!!!! There were lots of fish eating today but to get them we had to drop down to #28. The best rig was a double miracle nymph rig, both #28. Be short and light on the split shot and indicator.

April - April 21, 2014. As a result of a higher forecast for river flows in the San Juan River Basin, the Bureau of Reclamation has scheduled a decrease in the release from Navajo Reservoir from 350 to 250 cubic feet per second
(cfs) on Tuesday, April 22, 2014 beginning at 8:00 a.m.

Releases are made for the authorized purposes of the Navajo Unit, and to attempt to maintain a target base flow through the endangered fish critical habitat reach of the San Juan River (Farmington to Lake Powell).

April 19th - (Brad) We fished the San Juan yesterday. Better sized fish were eating. The best flies were standard pheasant tail #20 and the brown UV emerger #24. Picture is of Aiden, 9 yrs old with 20" brown.

April 10th - (Cole) The San Juan is fishing well at the moment. Large red annelids sz. 14-16 were catching fishing consistently and also smaller annelids sz.18-22. Black UV emergers fished really well behind the red and was about 50/50. Great numbers and better quality fish are eating at the moment. Take advantage of the better water quality and the lower CFS to get on big fish. Dry fly action is also heating up in the afternoons. I did see grasshoppers, butterflies, bees and huge clusters of midges. Summer is just around the corner.

21st February - (Robbie) The Juan was fishing well with leeches, eggs, and midge larva. Red, orange, olive and chocolate were the colors of choice. Worked up through the braids and fish were holding in the usual places. The water is starting to look a bit better and the flows are at 315 cfs. This makes for great late winter and spring conditions.

9th February - (Nick)- Floated the San Juan the other day. We fished mainly bugger variations all day. super flashy like pops buggers and big rubber buggers as well. The water is still pretty tainted but its all good. There were fish sitting just about everywhere. Our biggest fish were at the top of riffles. Great time to be down there right now with the low crowds and the big bugs!!!

18th January -(Nick) - We floated the San Juan yesterday. The fishing was great for numbers of fish. We used lots of different flies that worked great all day. We did hook a few big fish on Purple sparkle worms, and silver pops buggers, also orange eggs, and orange sparkle worms fished great. We fished really deep all day long hitting the bottom very frequently. The weather is beautiful down there this time of year and there were no crowds at all.
Definitely a peaceful time of year on the Juan!!!!